Islamic extremist gang 'plotted to kidnap British Muslim soldier and behead him like a pig'

By ANDY DOLAN

Last updated at 00:22 30 January 2008

An Islamist fanatic plotted to snatch a British Muslim soldier from the streets and film him being beheaded "like a pig" in a lock-up garage, a court heard.

Parviz Khan, 37, built up a terrorist cell in Birmingham and planned to kidnap the soldier before filming his "ghastly" death for release to the media.

The attack was designed to cause "panic and fear" amongst the Army and the wider British public.

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Leicester Crown Court was told that the terror cell had sent money and equipment to Pakistan for the use of terrorists trying to kill British soldiers on the Afghan border.

Prosecutor Nigel Rumfitt QC said Khan wanted to get "physically involved" in the bloodshed but was prevented by "his bosses overseas" because his supply operation was so valued.

Instead, the court heard, he hatched the plot to kill a soldier in the UK.

He decided to target a Muslim fighting in the British Army and asked another member of the cell to identify a potential victim.

Mr Rumfitt said: "The prosecution say that Parviz Khan is a fanatic.

"He is a man who has the most violent and extreme views. Khan was enraged by the idea that there were Muslim soldiers in the British Army, some of them from the Gambia in West Africa.

"He decided to kidnap such a soldier with the help of drug dealers in Birmingham.

"The soldier would be approached in the Broad Street nightlife area, lured into a car and taken to a lock-up garage and murdered with his head cut off - "like a pig".

"This atrocity would be filmed. They would have the soldier's military card to prove who he was."

The court heard that the film would be released through Khan's terrorist network to the Al Jazeera TV station.

He told his henchmen: "Young (Tony) Blair's going to go crazy."

Gambian national Basiru Gassama was the man given the task of finding a target from his own community.

The court heard that Khan played Gassama footage of numerous beheadings as he explained his plan.

But Khan was "blissfully unaware" that he had come to the attention of the security services, who built a dossier on the suspects, giving them codenames including Motorway Madness and Haunted Room.

The device recorded a series of incriminating conversations, including one in which Khan told how firelighters used to start camping stoves made ideal explosives.

In July 2006 Gassama visited Khan's terrace home in Alum Rock, Birmingham. Khan persuaded to him help identify the soldier victim.

Gassama, 30, of Hodge Hill, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to failing to inform the authorities of the plan to kill at an earlier court hearing and will be sentenced at the end of the trial, alongside Khan and two other members of the cell.

Mohammed Irfan, 31, and Hamid Elasmar, 44, both also from Birmingham, have admitted offences relating to the cell's activities.

Details of the four men's part in the plot emerged as two more men, Amjad Mahmood and Zahoor Iqbal, went on trial after denying terrorist offences.

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The court heard that Gassama, possibly "torn between his loyalty to Khan's cause and his own conscience", never came up with the details of a soldier target for Khan, and the plan 'lay dormant' until December 2006.

At that point Khan, frustrated by Gassama's dithering, approached Mahmood, who worked in a grocery shop close to his home.

Mr Rumfitt told the jury: "We say that Mahmood was told of the plot and although it's clear that Khan was serious, neither Gassama nor Mahmood did anything to warn the authorities to save a soldier from what would have been a ghastly death.

"It's apparent that Mahmood knows what he is talking about. It's that information which Mahmood should have taken straight to the authorities, but didn't."

Mahmood, 32, denies knowing about Khan's plot and failing to disclose the information.

Iqbal, 30, denies possessing a document or record likely to be useful to a terrorist, namely a computer disc called Encyclopedia Jihad.

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Both men have also pleaded not guilty to helping Khan to supply equipment to terrorists in Pakistan, under the Terrorism Act 2006.

The court heard Khan was packing boxes ready for his fifth shipment of terrorist equipment to Pakistan when he and the rest of the cell were arrested at the end of January last year.

A bag containing a CD-rom called Encyclopedia Jihad, with Khan's fingerprints on it, was discovered in a wardrobe at Iqbal's home in Perry Bar.

Iqbal told police he was not overly-religious, but the teaching assistant stopped talking to police after they told him Khan's home had been bugged and he had been recorded.

Mahmood, also of Alum Rock, refused to speak to police but drafted a prepared statement saying he did not support or agree with terrorism.

Khan pleaded guilty to the plot at a previous hearing but reporting restrictions banned disclosure of the fact until the start of the trial involving Mahmood and Iqbal.

PROFILE OF THE FANATICS

Parviz Khan

Codename Motorway Madness

Outwardly, Khan lived a respectable life in a terrace home with his elderly mother, wife and three children.

He claimed to be a fulltime carer for his mother and received £160 per week in benefits.

Prosecutor Nigel Rumfitt told the jury: "No one suggests that he spent all his time planning terrorist activity or that all his visitors were.

"Some of the time he talked about football, cricket and the day's news - mundane matters of that sort."

But the court heard, other conversations took a far more sinister turn and Khan - who held both UK and Pakistani passports - was an Islamic "fanatic" who held the "most violent and extreme views".

Khan, 37, launched the beheading plot after becoming "enraged" by the idea that Muslim soldiers were

HAMID ELASMAR

Codename Haunted Room

Elasmar, 44, lived in a high-rise tower block in Edgbaston and was also known as Abu Tariq, the name he was listed under in the phone book.

He has admitted helping Khan collect equipment to send to Pakistan.

BASIRU GASSAMA

Codename Regal Velvet

Gassama, 30, a married man, is the only defendant of Afro-Caribbean appearance because of his Gambian origins. The court heard he had known Khan for some time.

Gassama's importance to the plot lay in his heritage.

Knowing that Gambian Muslims served in the British Army, Khan hoped he would be able to use his contacts in the Gambian community to find such a soldier whom the group could target.

MOHAMMED IRFAN

Codename Festival Break

Irfan, 31, lived in a shared house close to Khan in Alum Rock. He has also admitted helping Khan collect equipment to send to Pakistan.

ZAHOOR IQBAL

Iqbal, 30, worked as a teaching assistant.

The court heard a letter found after his arrest suggested that he wanted to commit to jihad as far back as 2002 or 2003, but that his wife did not agree to it.

The court heard she wanted Iqbal to put their family first.

However, he appeared to be planning to dump her and replace his wife with someone else.

AMJAD MAHMOOD

Mahmood, 32, worked in a grocery store, giving him membership to three local cash-andcarries and wholesalers, including Costco and Macro.